This curry is something that I make some variation of at least once a fortnight for dinner. The base is really quite simple; sauté off your aromats, add spices, tomato paste and coconut cream, sear your meat, add to the base and simmer for a couple of minutes and serve. Because this is a quick cook curry, you can swap the pork for either chicken, mince, legumes, vegetables or tofu.
Spice Blend:
½ tsp coriander & cumin seeds
5 clove
5 cardamom pods
1 ½ cinnamon sticks
½ tsp garam masala
½ tsp nutmeg
For the Curry:
700 g pork loin, cubed, skin removed
1 brown onion, diced
5 cloves garlic, chopped
1 chilli, sliced
Thumb size piece of ginger, chopped
Peanut oil
1 tbsp tomato paste
1/2 tin coconut cream
300ml water or chicken stock
For the Rice:
1 cup jasmine rice
1 cup water
1 cinnamon stick
2 cardamon pods
2 tbsp coconut cream
Pinch of salt
For the Yoghurt:
Small handful of mint, finely chopped
Pinch of salt
1 tsp sugar
1/3 cup plain yoghurt
Add the spices to a dry frypan and toast over a medium flame until fragrant and coloured slightly. Transfer to a spice grinder and blitz to a powder. Alternatively, you can skip this step and use pre-ground spices.
Heat the oil in a medium non-stick pan, add the onion, garlic, ginger, chili and a pinch of salt and sauté for a few minutes until softened.
Add the tomato paste and fry for a minute or 2, followed by a tsp of the spice mix, the coconut cream and water (or stock).
Turn the heat to low and leave that to simmer while you sear the pork pieces.
Add the pork pieces to a bowl and drizzle with a bit of oil, a pinch of salt and 3 tsp of the spice mix.
Set a pan over med-high heat and lay the pork pieces in a single layer. Flip over after about a minute or 2 or until they are nicely browned and repeat on the other side. Remove from the pan and repeat if you need to do a second batch.
Add the pork to the pan with the curry and leave to simmer for about 10 minutes.
Season to taste with a little bit sugar and a pinch of salt.
For the rice:
Rince the rice until the water runs clear then add to a rice cooker with the remaining ingredients.
Leave to cook and let sit in the cooker for another 10 minutes after it has finished.
For the yoghurt:
Add everything to a bowl and mix to combine. Adjust to taste with a little bit of sugar and salt.
Mon Mack Food is my little space to share my passion for food. It is also a place to document the recipes I’ve created while cooking for friends and family! While it is now just a hobby, my absolute dream is to build this project into something I can one day call my job 🙂
